Wimbledon and Pimms. Fireworks and Hamburgers.

Saturday will be a perfect blend of our US/UK family.  Saturday morning will be spent watching the Ladies Wimbledon Final with strawberries and cream, maybe even a jug of Pimms.  Once the trophy has been awarded and royalty has paraded on Centre Court, thanking the ballboys and girls, we’ll switch over to hamburgers and fireworks for 4th July.

The weather looks like it’s been amazing this year for the tournament.  My friend Greg will be here on Saturday to watch the tennis with us.  Greg’s a HUGE tennis fan and came over to stay with me in England so that he could go to Wimbledon.  That particular year, 1991, there were loads of rain delays and play really got behind.  For the first time ever, Wimbledon arranged play for the middle Sunday which is traditionally a tennis free day.  This meant that absolutely no tickets had been sold and would be available on a first come first served basis on the Sunday morning.  Greg and I decided we couldn’t miss such a great opportunity and arranged for a taxi to pick us up at 5am and take us from my flat in North London to Wimbledon.  It was one of the craziest taxi journey’s I’ve ever had, he drove like a lunatic and told us he worked for the BBC.  Translation: his taxi service was sometimes booked by the BBC!  As I was working for the BBC World Service at the time, it was particularly funny.

As we approached, we could see lots of people walking towards the Club.  The taxi driver dropped us off at the end of the line of people and we stood there for a bit, walking slowly forward as the line progressed.  We soon started to realise that the people around us had sleeping bags and supplies for an all night stay.  As the line had started to move, people had begun packing up their belongings and moving forward.  What we thought was the end of the line was simply a break in the crowds where someone had been slow moving forward.  We were mortified and surprised that no one had accused us of jumping in line.   We discussed what to do, should we be honest and go to the back of the line, but we were so far ahead we’d never get to the end of it, so we stayed put.

Then, some officials started walking down the line, wearing the traditional Wimbledon uniform.  “What time did you get here?” they kept asking.  People were telling them different times from the evening before.  “Bloody good show” they’d respond.  Now what should be do?  Lie to the officials?!  We just looked very deep in conversation as they went passed us, so that we didn’t have to lie or admit what we’d done.

We had the best day ever.  Front and center seats on Centre Court.  It was an amazing day.  The crowd was electric, full of proper tennis fans.  We even did ‘the wave.’  It became known as ‘People’s Sunday‘ and has only been repeated in 1997 and 2004.

The next day, at work, I picked up all the papers to look through for my daily research.  There was Greg, with his arms in the air, doing ‘the wave.’  You can just about see me, but I was blocked by someone in front.  Greg was there though, not to be missed.  This was Greg’s first ever trip to London and he gets into Wimbledon and on the front page of most of the major newspapers!

It looks like it will be another all American Ladies final on Saturday with the Williams sisters, quite appropriate for the 4th July, but I do wonder if they’d rather be at home, celebrating in the US.

Hopefully it’ll be a British final on Sunday – come on Murray!